Sometimes you go home from a photo gig and you know something was special that night. There is this exciting feeling you might have gotten a perfect shot - and you can not wait to get home to see it on a big screen.

When shooting Pyrohex - a super hot fire artist group - at the London Scala I had a about 15 minutes to take photos. The artists were moving quickly while juggling, dancing and breathing fire. One of the trickiest performances for a photographer to capture. The light changes constantly from super dark to super explosive bright. Something the camera can hardly adjust to in automatic mode. Everything you do here has to be on manual.

In order to get my dream shot - the explosion of the fire breather I had to set the camera on 3 stops darker, and then I had to anticipate the performer's movements and watch when they take new fuel into their mouths and then wait for them to spit it all out in a massive fireball and hope that the light was not too bright to overexpose the shot.

Playgroup Festival was one of my favourite UK festivals. With just a few thousand people it was big enough to never be boring and small enough to make friends among the crowd and to get a chance to meet them again during the next days.

I loved the silly, childish and at the same time gritty atmosphere of it - something I tried to capture with my camera.

These are a few photos from Larissa Hadjio's pop up show opening night in East London. The challenge for me here was to take candid photos in a very small place crammed full of people - making sure I am not invasive with my camera - and not to get in the way of people talking and record the event almost as I wasn't there. Plus I really tried to find as many interesting angles as possible to make sure the viewer and myself didn't get bored of it all. It's one of my favourite ways of covering events.

]]>contact@stefanklenke.com (Der Eventfotograf - Stefan Klenke - Berlin, Germany, International)Larissa HadjioLondonevent photographyfashionopeningpop up showhttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2014/1/larissa-hadjio-pop-up-show-opening-nightWed, 15 Jan 2014 18:57:32 GMTRed Bull Music Academy Carnival - Notting Hill, Londonhttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/red-bull-music-academy-carnival-2012---notting-hill-london
One of my highlights in 2012 was definitely photographing the famous Red Bull Notting Hill Carnival party. Based underneath the A40 flyover near the popular Portobello Road market the event is packed every year with an explosive line-up of sh*t-hot urban performers and hundreds of fans who were lucky enough to win the highly sought after free tickets that Red Bull Music Academy give away on the internet prior to the events.

Legends like Major Lazer, Sean Paul and David Rodigan brought the atmosphere to a boiling point. I was dancing and jumping for hours with my camera in my hand. Especially Major Lazer knows how to perform - he was fearless and unstoppable. Respect!

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]]>contact@stefanklenke.com (Der Eventfotograf - Stefan Klenke - Berlin, Germany, International)David RodiganLondonMajor LazerNotting Hill carnivalRMBARed Bull Music AcademySean Paulconcertgigliveurban musichttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/red-bull-music-academy-carnival-2012---notting-hill-londonSun, 20 Oct 2013 14:46:06 GMTClarity Clarence Video Shoot - "Alive In The Septic Tank"http://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/clarity-clarence-video-shoot
A couple of weeks ago I covered the video shoot for the new video of Clarity Clarence "Alive In The Septic Tank" directed by Craig Murray - as you can see from the photos it was all very abstract and dark - filming on a cemetery in Stoke Newington London and in a disused anti-air-raid bunker in Dalston - 5 minutes from where I happen to live . It was a lot of fun working on it.

I can't get enough of being on any kind of movie sets - even after so many years I love watching how movies or music videos are being filmed and then compare them against the final video - which you can find on the bottom of this article.

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]]>contact@stefanklenke.com (Der Eventfotograf - Stefan Klenke - Berlin, Germany, International)Clarity ClarenceCraig MurrayLondonbehind the scenesmaking-ofvideo shoothttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/clarity-clarence-video-shootSun, 20 Oct 2013 13:57:07 GMTGet wed!http://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/get-wed
This year has been quite a bit about friends getting married - yap! I belong to that age group now - and of course I was asked to take photos of numerous weddings. Despite me not aiming to be a wedding photographer - I realised there is something I really like about the job.

What I like about it is of course freezing those precious moments - telling the story of a day that means so much for everyone involved. But it's tough, you carry a lot responsibilities and you never rest - because every second something can happen. And then you sit for days editing one grandma pic after another - that's why wedding photographers quite rightly ask for a good price. At least they should. And couples should not be cheap in their choices or ask a friend who happens to have a camera to carry that big load of pressure on their shoulders, it's (hopefully) a once in a life-time event - so better get the pros in.

Everyone so far loved the results as well - so I have a feeling I will do more of these in the future.

I love festivals like that - I love them because they are full of the most beautiful things that humans can come up with. Music, art and amazing food for bellies and thoughts in a fantasy world that only lasts for a few days.

You jump into the rabbit hole and see where it takes you.

I also love festivals because apart from the incredible silly fun to be had you often encounter the slightly blue and melancholic moments in life. When the party is over, the energy levels have dropped to nil, all friends are lost somewhere in the midst if the hullabaloo, the mud sucked up your shoes and your last will to carry on.

But of course everyone who ever went to a festival knows that's just part of the festival spirit - without these highs and lows it would not be a proper memorable festival experience. It is this super intense contrast of ups and downs that I find so incredibly inspiring to photograph.

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]]>contact@stefanklenke.com (Der Eventfotograf - Stefan Klenke - Berlin, Germany, International)2012EnglandGardenKlenkeLivePartySecretSecret Garden PartyStefanSummerUKfestivalhttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/secret-garden-pary-mud-n-rollThu, 17 Oct 2013 19:48:00 GMTFeed The Rhino - Live at Scala London (4th October 2013)http://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/feeding-the-rhino-live-at-scala-london-4th-october-2013
I had the pleasure to shoot these guys a few weeks ago - man their energy could wake up dead people!
I love seeing bands where you can actually feel that they are real - they live that life they are portraying on stage - at least that's what I want to believe. Maybe they are golfers and collect stamps at home in their country side estates. You never know.

]]>contact@stefanklenke.com (Der Eventfotograf - Stefan Klenke - Berlin, Germany, International)2013Feed The RhinoLondonScalaconcertgiglivehttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/feeding-the-rhino-live-at-scala-london-4th-october-2013Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:05:29 GMTRumpus - A Legend in Photoshttp://stefanklenke.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/10/rumpus-a-legend-in-photos
During the last two years of my photo-residency at Rumpus - London's wildest party - I encountered moments that are impossible to sum up in words. That's why I made this collection of my photos so you can see for yourselves.

Last week I was lucky enough to witness an epic gig by Jazzfusion legend Robert Glasper who came to London to play a gig at the Barbican on Tuesday night and to introduce his new album Black Radio which was just released on Blue Note.

And because he loved the concert and the crowd so much he set up an ad-hoc gig the next day at the Village Underground - which sold out despite only 16 hours set-up time. And that's where I took these photos.

It was the longest gig I have ever been to with nearly 3 hours of playing and jamming in front of an ecstatic crowd. Understandably that Robert didn't want to stop playing - the atmosphere was just tremendous. At one point he gave the mic to some girls in the crowd who gob-smacked everyone with their incredible voices.

He was supported by his band Casey Benjamin, Derrick Hodge and Mark Colenburg and the by guest singer Lalal Hathaway.

Red Bull is a massive supporter not only of incredibly talented sports people but they also nurture musical talents throughout the world.

One of the big events they regularly organise in the name of the Red Bull Music Academy is the Red Bull Culture Clash. I shot one of them a while ago in London's spectacular Roundhouse.

Drum and Bass, Reggae, Ska and Garage - some of my favourite music genres brought nearly the roof down. Four musical teams each armed with massive sound systems battling it out against each other in front of a screaming ecstatic crowd - I was in photographic heaven. I think I am a bit addicted to the energy you can feel in those kind of moments.

My task was mainly to shoot photos that incorporate any of the RB products. But here I decided to show you more of the photos advertising free. ;)

This was another shoot I worked on. This time I was taking the behind-the-scenes photographs during a video for up and coming band Never Means Maybe and their song "Inhale the Chaos".

I was amazed about the scale of this massive warehouse which we had entirely to ourselves. It was a fairly straight forward video - solely consisting of shots of the band looking cool while performing. And the light-setting DoP did an amazing job creating simple but stunning light effects. One of the many things I enjoy shooting on movie sets - sometimes the lighting is just breath taking and a real visual feast for my lens. If you look at the second half of the video you can see what I mean. Just beautiful.

Covering the filming of BMTH's new video showed me again why I love this job so much. As part of a film crew you get to see locations that the public often hasn't got access too.

We shot in an disused warehouse in East London's trendy district Shoreditch. It was one of the spookiest places you can find - apparently Jack the Ripper killed his first victim there - ideal set up for the dark and twisted feeling of the video.

The darkness was definitely the biggest challenge for me. Having to shoot video and photographs with so little light available I was forced to use my bright 50mm f1.8 and my Canon 60D on the highest light sensitivity setting (ISO 6400) almost throughout the entire shoot. This resulted in very grainy images and shots with a very shallow depth of field. Often the grainy-ness can be a problem but I think here it really worked in favour of the style of the whole shoot.

Also using a lens with such a restricted focal length means you have to zoom a lot with your legs as they say - meaning you gotta get physically really close to your subject or quite far away to allow the framing you want - which in a small intimate space can be very tricky or impossible even.

But I realised the trickier something is the more it inspires you to think up new ways of shooting and that can be really refreshing.

Here is the making of video I filmed and edited. The guys from Jaegermeister - who is a sponsor of the band - seemed really pleased and used it as world exclusive promotion for the actual video which you can see below this one.

The video directed by the super talented Stuart Birchall was just nominated for best video by Kerrang Magazine!!

Doing the behind the scenes photo and video coverage for the making of the video to Architects' single Heartburn was total fun. Day 1 of the two day shoot took place on a little farm in Kent - where amongst many other scenes the car accident and the dramatic fire blast were filmed.

The second day took us to the stunning landscape of the New Forest. Under the watchful eyes of free roaming wild horses we filmed the car driving shots and the breathtaking footage of the band walking through the eerie scenery.

And here is the full video present as an exclusive by Kerrang Magazine: